The Tunnels We Dig
January 29–April 26, 2026
For over a decade, Bárbara Wagner (b. 1980) & Benjamin de Burca (b. 1975) have been creating video works and installations in dialogue with other artists and collectives. In their collaborative films, the artist duo who live in Brazil focus primarily on cultural movements and collective practices that take place outside the established spheres of contemporary art. From January 29 to April 26, 2026, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt will be presenting the first major solo exhibition in Germany by Wagner & de Burca.
Sebastian Baden, Director of the Schirn, notes: “In our new exhibition, the internationally renowned artist duo Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca explore the unifying and emancipatory power of shared musical culture. For their videos, the artists conduct research in local culture communities, such as the hardcore Straight Edge scene around Frankfurt, and stage their work in impressive, evocative video installations. It was of particular importance to us to be able to show a new video work developed specially for the exhibition as a world premiere at the Schirn. Wagner & de Burca’s respectful artworks allow our audience to get a glimpse into music scenes, into underground and youth cultures that have found their unique artistic forms of expression, codes, and identities outside the mainstream—often in connection with the urge to set oneself apart or the struggle for recognition. The Schirn repeatedly dedicates its exhibitions to the connection between art and music, and with this new work by Wagner & de Burca it demonstrates once again how important this interdisciplinary exchange is to us.”
The show combines three audiovisual pieces created in different contexts: Future of Yesterday (Germany, 2026), RISE (Canada, 2018), and Estás vendo coisas / You are seeing things (Brazil, 2016). It portrays local, multigenerational music scenes that emerged in the early 1980s as youth movements outside the mainstream. These scenes developed independent cultural or musical structures and reference systems and are now being reinterpreted by a younger generation.
The exhibition centers on the specially developed new production Future of Yesterday (2026). This video installation explores the current hardcore scene in Germany and, in particular, Straight Edge (or “sXe” for short)—a movement that began on the East Coast of the United States as a “clean” counterculture within the hardcore punk scene. RISE (2018) is about first- and second-generation Canadians of Afro-Caribbean descent. In an act of self-empowerment, they use elements of hip-hop and rap to artistically occupy the public space of the Toronto subway. One of Wagner & de Burca’s first works, Estás vendo coisas / You are seeing things (2016), in turn explores Brega music from the Brazilian city of Recife, in northeastern Brazil.
Katharina Dohm, curator of the exhibition, further remarks: “Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca’s video installations portray music scenes and their protagonists. The unique aspect of their installations is the intense collaborative process with the respective collectives and protagonists across various generations. It is not so much about giving marginalized groups a platform, but about creating encounters between different communities and artists to explore the dynamics of collaboration. They frequently film with a second camera in order to place us, as the audience, in a position enabling us to observe the performers as they showcase themselves. This gives rise to unique works of art that are borne by the aesthetics, the rhythm, the atmosphere, and the mindset of the specific scenes and their protagonists.”
A defining characteristic of Wagner & de Burca’s artistic process is their collaborative approach: the groups portrayed are actively involved in the creation of script, set design, music, choreography, and production. Their audiovisual works are a compelling examination of pressing sociopolitical issues within the respective communities of the performers; they draw on cultural forms of expression with which these communities identify and use to find their public voice. The exhibition takes its title from a poem in the film RISE. The works on display frame the subway tunnel as a physical structure in urban space, while at the same time allowing it to serve as a metaphor for transformative processes involving cultural resistance, the negotiation of identity, and artistic expression.
The new print magazine SCHIRN PAPER is published at the new location of the Schirn three times a year. On the occasion of the exhibition “Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca: The Tunnels We Dig,” the print magazine will contain an interview with Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca by Katharina Dohm and a contribution by Jörg Scheller.
The exhibition “Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca: The Tunnels We Dig” is supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Additional support by Schirn Zeitgenossen.
Director: Sebastian Baden / Curator: Katharina Dohm / Press contact: Johanna Pulz (Head of Press/Public Relations): presse [at] schirn.de / T +49 (0) 69 29 98 82 148 / Press material: here.
